the products and services that an organization offers to its market. Enabling capabilities: the inventory of business capabilities that are required to support them but not sold or offered to the market Strategic planning Companies like Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Intercontinental Hotels Group have used capabilities to focus on where to take out costs and outsource non strategic capabilities while improving service and adding brands. IT–business alignment Microsoft is using capability models to enter into conversations with clients to identify capability and process pain points to better align IT solutions to the business. New growth platforms Capabilities are also being used in new growth platform development. Platforms are a foundation that spawns multiple products and/or services that, by themselves, are eventually the size of a business unit. These innovations result from identifying new domains created at the intersection of enablers or "unstoppable trends" and customer dynamics, linked to an essential set of core capabilities called the platform logic: those capabilities that are unique, valuable, and portable. Capability value contribution Building of the earlier type of work logic, Accelare added a distinction in assessment of the capabilities necessary to the operative business by examining the financial impact as well as the customer impact. Some capabilities directly contribute to the customer value proposition and have a high impact on company financials. These "advantage capabilities" are shown in the upper right. Value contribution is assured when performance is among the best in peer organizations at acceptable cost. Keep them inside and protect the intellectual property. Moving to the top left quadrant, strategic support capabilities have high contribution in direct support of advantage capabilities. Keep them close. Value contribution is assured when performed above industry parity at competitive cost. Other capabilities shown in the bottom right are essential. They may not be visible to the customer but contribute to company's business focus and have a big impact on the bottom line. Focus on efficiency improvement; especially in high volume work. Value contribution is assured when performed at industry parity performance below competitors' cost. Other capabilities are "business necessity". Value contribution is assured when performed at industry parity performance below competitors' costs. They can be candidates for alternate sourcing. Gap analysis and heat maps A capability gap assessment can be portrayed in a heat map: A heat map is a visualization of which capabilities require attention. A heat index is calculated using effectiveness and